Applications are OPEN
The current round of applications for Chase travel grants is now open and closes on November 1, 2024 at 5 PM EST.
The Chase Family in Florida
The story of the Chases in Florida began in 1878 when Sydney Octavius Chase (1860-1941), having read about orange groves in Scribner’s Magazine, came to Florida from Philadelphia. His brother, Joshua Coffin Chase (1858-1948), joined him in 1884 and together they formed Chase and Company that year. The citrus enterprise eventually involved all of the family over several generations.
The Chase Family Grant was first established in 2009 in honor of Cecilia L. Johnson, granddaughter of Joshua Cofin Chase, with additional support in memory of Joshua C. Johnson. The grant program now continues through an endowment created by members of the Chase family. We gratefully acknowledge their generosity and public spiritedness in supporting this travel grant, which provides up to $2000 to each recipient to conduct research in the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History.
IN APPRECIATION – Funding for this award comes from the Sydney O. Chase and Joshua C. Chase Endowment and through the generous support of members of the Chase family.
Congratulations to the 2023 Award Recipients
Robert D. Skelton completed a week of research focusing on Reconstruction. As part of his dissertation work at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, he argues that the Radical Republican vision for fostering Black political power and landownership in Florida collided with post-war business interests that viewed the new Freedmen populace as primarily an inexpensive labor force. In particular, he examined post-war negotiations between Democrats and Republicans to restart and revitalize Florida’s economy that fractured the Republican coalition and led to the demise of both Republican and African American political power in Florida until the civil rights era.
Alexander J. Bowen from the University of Georgia is finishing dissertation work that also looks at post-Civil War Florida. He writes of his research: “The collections I engaged with will greatly aid my analysis of how Florida society changed socially and economically after the American Civil War, what impact these changes had on the antebellum planter class, and how the planters were influenced to participate Florida’s Lost Cause. The materials I encountered in Gainesville will undoubtedly play a crucial role in a journal article I am working on concerning the Bradford-Eppeses of Leon County as well as my larger dissertation project. Numerous nineteenth-century newspapers are excellent glimpses into the social and economic life of postbellum Florida. The Semi-Tropical, a quarterly journal edited by former Gov. Harrison Reed features articles from notable Floridians and southerners on trends in agriculture and immigration to Florida. The Florida Agriculturalist (Jacksonville) focused primarily on agricultural news throughout Florida, but also featured ads for land sales and potential immigration colonies as well as articles on Florida as a suitable place for settlement. The Florida Ruralist (Interlachen) was similar to the Agriculturalist in its coverage, but it was oriented more towards immigrants; the paper sold annual subscriptions for $0.25/year so it could be accessible to poorer readers and printed advice for potential settlers on what lands might be suitable for colonization and which land agents were known scammers in addition to honest information on what settler life was like.”
Brianna Harrison from the University of Memphis researched collections to add to her broader dissertation study on the convict lease labor system in the South. She noted “While at UF I viewed the materials that will form the basis of a chapter on the development of the convict lease system and the naval store industry in Florida from 1870 to 1920.” She found especially useful the Governor William Sherman Jennings Papers, particularly his scrapbooks from 1901 that included letters and newspaper clippings related to the convict lease system; the William Cubberly Papers, which include cases on debt peonage and forced labor in early twentieth century Florida; and the Nathan Mayo Papers, which included speeches on forced labor during his tenure as Commissioner of Agriculture. “These records are useful for understanding the rise and fall of convict lease labor and other forms of forced labor in Florida.”
Donald Zimmerman of the University of South Florida is researching the influence of Freemasonry in Florida politics. Of his visit he writes: “My dissertation project focuses on Freemasonry in Jim Crow Florida, 1880-1930, and how the fraternity intersects with race in politics, education, and racial violence. From 1880 to 1930, nearly 74% of Florida’s governors were Masons. From 1909 to 1949, all ten governors were Masons. Part of my project examines the life and politics of Florida governor Sidney J. Catts.” In his work with the James B. Hodges Collection, Zimmerman located several letters between Palm Beach Post editor Joe Earman and James Hodges indicating Catts attempted to exploit his connections to Freemasonry. “’Men or Masons go into the gutter and sometimes they go to jail,’ Earman stated, ‘but I have never heard of one violating the sacred obligations they solemnly take upon themselves until Old Catts violated and violated most grievously in a letter to me and the demand was for money in connection with violating the sacred and in fact most sacred of obligations.’”
Previous Recipients of the Chase Family Award
Award for 2020
Charlie Fanning was our 2020 “Pandemic Year” award recipient and had quite the adventure at the P.K. Yonge, arriving about five days before COVID forced the university to shut down and remove all personnel from campus! Fortunately, by agreement with the provost, Charlie was able to remain in a socially-distanced environment to complete his research and had a safe trip and safe return home, competing his dissertation and receiving his doctorate from the University of Maryland, College Park. Now he is back as Lecturer and Undergraduate Research Coordinator for UF’s Beyond120 program that introduces undergraduates to research methods and research materials. We’re glad to have him back in the Gator camp and look forward to seeing him and his students this Fall when they will be coming to Special Collections to look at a selection of rare books and manuscripts.
Award for 2019
Rachel Kirby (Boston University) researched her dissertation topic about the role of the orange as an icon of Florida’s identity and economy, and other agricultural iconography of the South. Rachel is currently Lecturer in History and Literature at Harvard. Read more about Rachel here – Rachel Kirby | American & New England Studies Program (bu.edu) and here – Rachel C. Kirby, Ph.D.
Award for 2018
Aubrey Lauersdorf has her doctorate from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) with a focus on the Apalachee Indians of Florida. She served as assistant professor in history at Auburn University and is currently assistant professor of history at FSU. Her current book project is titled Apalachee Coast: Indigenous Power in the Colonial Gulf South.
Recipients of the Cecilia L. Johnson Award
Caption: In Honor of Cecilia L. Johnson
Awards for 2011
Robert Hutchings (Carnegie Mellon) did research on his dissertation, Agriculture, Environment, and the Transformation of the Florida Orange Industry in the Twentieth Century (awarded 2014). He is currently a Program Manager at Cisco Systems
Diane M. Boucher (Clark University) conducted research for her dissertation, Networks and Empires in the Maritime Borderlands: East Florida, 1763-1811 (awarded 2014). She teaches U.S. history at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and is an independent consultant in historical research.
Awards for 2010
Cameron Strang (University of Texas, Austin) researched his doctoral thesis on scientific knowledge on the Florida frontier. Strang is associate professor of history at the University of Nevada-Reno. His first book, Frontiers of Science: Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands, 1500-1850, based in part on research at the Yonge Library, was published in 2018 and won the Summerlee Book Prize from The Center for History and Culture of Southeast Texas and the Upper Gulf Coast (Lamar University) and the Michael V. R. Thomason Book Award from the Gulf South Historical Association. Listen to a Podcast about his research presented by the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
Clark Barwick (Indiana University, Bloomington) conducted research on Zora Neale Hurston and Florida jukes. Barwick is a senior lecturer in the Kelley School of Business, University of Indiana.
Awards for 2009
Christopher Wilhelm (Florida State University) received a travel grant to conduct research on the creation of Everglades National Park. An article based on this research, “Conservatives in the Everglades: Sun Belt Environmentalism and the Creation of Everglades National Park,” has been published in the Journal of Southern History. (82:4) 2016. Wilhelm is currently associate professor of history at Georgia Coastal College.
Jonathan DeCoster (Brandeis University) received a travel grant for his research into early colonial alliances and rivalries among the native peoples of Florida. DeCoster is currently associate professor of history at Otterbein University, Ohio. His article “Entangled Borderlands: Europeans and Timucuans in Sixteenth-Century Florida” appeared in the Florida Historical Quarterly in 2013.